Men at Arms by Terry Pratchett

Men at Arms was the first Discworld book I read that actually belonged to a continuing character arc, so I've always considered it to be a flagship of the series. It's not a bad place to start, either, since several new characters are introduced and the old ones are expanded upon, but there's not so much backstory that the reader gets lost. It's an excellent book, both on its own and as part of the series.

Overview
Affirmative action has come to Ankh-Morpork, but because this is Discworld, the Watch's new minority hires consist of a dwarf, a troll, and a . . . well, women aren't technically a minority, but everyone assumes that's the group Lance-Corporal Angua is representing. Captain Vimes is not thrilled with the new arrangement, but since he will shortly be married and retired, he figures it's not his problem.

Meanwhile, the young assassin Edward d'Eath, outraged at his family's fall into poverty and obscurity and increasingly obsessed with ancient royalty, thinks he has discovered the long-lost heir to the throne of Ankh-Morpork and plots to put him back in his rightful place. A half-crazed assassin shouldn't have been too much trouble, but Edward manages to get his hands on a strange new weapon that gives him incredible power--the gonne. In a world where the crossbow is the height of weapons technology, even a single firearm can cause quite a bit of trouble, especially since this one seems to have a mind of its own.

Other topics on the table for your enjoyment include clowns, dogs, monarchy, the properties of springs and the superconductivity of silicon. They all fit together, I promise.

Recommended for: Everyone. You don't have a good enough excuse not to.

Parental Worries: As before, these books are written for adults, but the target audience mostly comes through in the jokes. Unlike most Discworld books, there is some sex, but never actually 'on screen' as it were. You can figure out what happens, but they don't spell out any details.

Audiobooks: Read by the amazing Nigel Planer, who takes the already colorful characters into a whole new dimension.

Ramblings (Spoiler Threat: Low)
One of the reasons I'm particularly fond of this book is that Carrot and Vimes are both over the growing pains from their first novel. Carrot is no longer the green kid that arrested the leader of the Thieves Guild--he's solid gold, and so is everything he touches from here on out. It would be annoying, if he didn't make up for it by being embarrassingly earnest and completely hopeless at anything involving subterfuge. Vimes is . . . well, I can't say he's entirely reformed his ways, 'cause that's half his charm, but he's definitely benefited from having Sybil to look after him, and this book is where he really starts moving up in the world. (kicking and screaming all the way, but moving up nonetheless ^_~ )

I can't decide what Pratchett is trying to say (if anything) about gun control in general, because the circumstances in the story don't really apply to anything in the real world today. (One gun in the world vs. a world full of guns) He makes a couple of points that seem to be ridiculing bits of gun rights activism, but Pratchett is too smart to suggest that all guns should be illegal, he actually makes a point in another book about the stupidity of outlawing all weapons, so that only criminals are armed. I doubt it's even an issue in Britain, so the gonne may just be a convenient plot device, and not a social commentary :-p

Quotes Time!

"'There's stranger people in this world than Corporal Nobbs, my lad.'
Carrot's expression slid into a rictus of intrigued horror.
'Gosh.'"

"There were such things as Dwarf gods (...) they'd seen the need for gods as a sort of supernatural equivalent of a hard hat. Besides, when you hit your thumb with an eight-pound hammer it's nice to be able to blaspheme. It takes a very special and strong minded kind of atheist to jump up and down with their hand clasped under their other armpit and shout, 'Oh, random-fluctuations-in-the-space-time-coninuum!' or 'Aaargh, primitive-and-out-moded-concept on a crutch!'"

"Dwarfs are very attached to gold. Any highwayman demanding ‘Your money or your life’ had better bring a folding chair and packed lunch and a book to read while the debate goes on."

"But the thing was that good boots lasted for years and years. A man who could afford fifty dollars had a pair of boots that’d still be keeping his feet dry in ten years’ time, while a poor man who could only afford cheap boots would have spent a hundred dollars on boots in the same time and would still have wet feet."
--Captain Samuel Vimes ‘Boots’ theory of socio-economic unfairness.

"‘Coalface? In the Watch?’
Dink. ‘Corporal Carrot says there’s some good buried somewhere in everyone,’ said Detritus.
‘And what’s your job, Detritus?’
Dink. ‘Engineer in charge of deep mining operations, sah!’"

"Sometimes it's better to light a flamethrower than curse the darkness."